Note: this is taken from R4ndom’s Guide to RadASM: Installing and Set Up which can be located here: http://octopuslabs.io/legend/blog/archives/2420.html

Setting Up the Environment

Now run RadASM and you will see the basic layout:

images/radasm_basic_layout.png

First things first, select Options->Programming Languages. Click the “…” button, select the Masm.ini file and hit the “add” button. Masm should now appear in the list of languages. If you have a different assembly type (or want to add additional types) like Tasm or GoASM, repeat the process for each one. Then click OK. You now have support for that particular language:

images/radasm_prog_langs.png

Now, you may want to open up any project just to see the color scheme. Here, I loaded the “DragNDrop” project from RadASM root/Masm/Projects/DragDrop. The project file ends with a .rap. You will see the project in our Project Explorer on the right:

images/radasm_project_explorer.png

Now double-click on the DragDrop.asm file to open it in our code window:

images/radasm_editor.png

as you can see, the default color scheme leaves a little to be desired. I personally can’t even see the dark blue text, though I am getting old, so what can I say. Let’s change the color scheme to something a little softer on the eyes. Select “Option”->”Color & Keywords”. This brings up the main color selector:

images/radasm_colors.png

I don’t know about you, but I like to personalize my coding environment. his window allows you to do just that. The method to change colors starts with a theme. There are a couple that come with RadASM and if you look really hard, you can find some additional ones online. But since EVERY option (and I mean EVERY) is changeable, you really won’t need one. I started with the default theme, Dark Night, and modified it from there. If you prefer a lighter background, try one of the other themes. Just select it and click “Load”, the n”Apply” and you will see it pop up. Start with whatever theme is closest to what you like, then you can fine-tune it from there.

To fine-tune it, we go to the Colors and Syntax box below. Here, we choose any type of instruction and select a color for it. You can either select a default color under the Colors group, or you can double-click the type in the Syntax group and select any color you want. For example, if I write a quick comment in the code:

images/radasm_comment_yellow.png

and decide I would instead like it green, I would open the color picker, double-click “Comment” under the Synatx group, and pick a nice green. Clicking Apply will then show me the results:

images/radasm_comment_green.png

Because there are so many options that can have their colors changed, a lot of times I will simply look for a color I don’t like in the Syntax group and then change it. Eventually, you will learn what each group type is, or through trial and error will figure it out. After selecting the color I prefer, I now have my own color scheme:

images/radasm_editor_colors.png

If one of you reading this tutorial would like my exact colors (or want to trade with someone else), you can open the RadASM.ini file provided in this download and copy everything under the “[Colors]” section into the RadASM.ini file in your root folder, replacing what you have with what you copied. Your colors will then match mine exactly.

The last thing I like to do is change the default font. I find the default one a little blocky, so I have included a font designed for assembly language users in mind (I don’t know if this is true, but it sure is a lot better than the default.) It is called Dina, and is in the download with this tutorial. Just unzip the contents and copy them in to the Windows font folder, re-run RadASM, and select “Option”->”Font options”. Now, select the installed Dina font for the first three:

images/radasm_fonts.png

Some other configuration in the Option menu you may want to look at are the following:

• Languages: Changes the IDE language (if you prefer German, for example)
• Programming Languages : Adds new templates for additional programming languages.
• Code Editor Options: Change tab stops, backup policies etc.
• Dialog Editor Options: For changing the look of dialogs in the Dialog Editor.
• Menu Accelerators: For adding your own hot-keys.
• Addin Manager: For adding and deleting addins.

The Toolbar

images/radasm_toolbar.png

Depending on which addins you have installed, the addins icons at the right-hand side may be different, though Notepad and Windows Calc will always be the first two icons.

One interesting feature that should be pointed out is the “Tabs” button. This opens the Tabs toolbar:

images/radasm_lancome.png

These options allow you to auto-indent code, normalize code (make it the same indentation), as well as set tab lengths and other tab related options.